Separate application category for transgenders in all govt jobs
Last month, the Bombay HC, while hearing a petition filed by Arya Pujari and Nikita Mukhdayal, had asked the state to make the TG option available in the last two days of the application process which ended on December 15.
Mumbai: Weeks after the Bombay high court rapped the Maharashtra government for not having set a separate online category for transgenders (TGs) in the ongoing recruitment of police constables, the government has now moved a proposal to create an option for TGs in all government jobs. Thus, the gender choices, apart from male and female, will now include a drop-down option for TGs.
Last month, the Bombay HC, while hearing a petition filed by Arya Pujari and Nikita Mukhdayal, had asked the state to make the TG option available in the last two days of the application process which ended on December 15. Sixty-seven people have applied in the TG category for the recruitment under way for 18,331 posts in the Maharashtra Police and State Reserve Police Force.
Taking a cue from the HC diktat, the state government now proposes to have a separate application category for TGs in all government jobs. “The social welfare department has moved the proposal, and it is expected to come before the cabinet in the next couple of weeks,” said an official from the general administration department. “We have also sought the opinion of the health department on the physical aspects that need to be considered while recruiting TGs, and the finance and planning department to judge the financial implications, if any, due to the changes in the recruitment process.”
The official said that the relevant departments would be asked to frame rules related to the physical and educational eligibility to be set for TGs. “These could vary from department to department,” he said. “For instance, the home department might set a different eligibility for height and weight for recruitment in the police force but the education department will not need a separate eligibility for recruiting TGs as teachers. The decision on whether they need to be given concession in educational qualifications is expected to be taken in the cabinet, though we expect a lenient approach, keeping the poor educational level of the community in mind.”
In 2014, the Supreme Court, had also directed reservations for TGs not only in education but in public employment as well. However, an official from the general administration department clarified that the community would not have any reservations in jobs.
Petitioner Arya Pujari said that while the government’s creating a third category in job application was a welcome step, what it really needed to do, if it wanted TGs to make it to the mainstream, was to give the community a reservation quota. “Eleven states have given us reservation in employment,” she said. “Karnataka, for instance, has reserved one percent for TGs in its ongoing police recruitment.”
Pujari said that since police recruitment in Maharashtra had a 33 percent quota for females, TGs too deserved reservations. “The state government sat on the 2014 Supreme Court verdict which mandated reservations for us in government jobs,” she said. “It should now take a decision on reservations as well.”
